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Cheng to form committee for internal provost search The next person to fill SIUC's second most powerful position will come from within the university, Chancellor Rita Cheng said. Cheng said she posted a notice to fill the senior vice chancellor and provost position Feb. 11 and asked all departments to submit their most qualified candidates. All candidate applications will be reviewed by a screening committee, which will be selected this week, she said.
Cheng said the selection of a new provost could take several weeks to a month from the time the committee is formed. The chancellor will have the final word on who succeeds former Provost Gary Minish, as she did in the fall provost search. Minish was selected by Cheng as the university’s provost Nov. 18 and spent 10 official days in the office before he resigned Jan. 19 in an e-mail to her.
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Cheng notified the university community via e-mail about Minish's resignation the same day he resigned. Minish could have moved back to a position in the College of Agricultural Sciences but instead chose to retire and completely leave the university Jan. 20. In October, Cheng said because the provost is second-in-command at the university and she would prefer a like-minded candidate whom she is comfortable working with.
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Packed-house performance
LAUREN LEONE | DAILY EGYPTIAN
Yotaro Ogata, a freshman from Japan studying linguistics, performs a traditional Japanese dance Friday at the Cultural Show competition. Srikanth Uppalaunchi, president of the International Student Council, said the competition is judged by crowd excitement and the synchronization of the performance. This particular
performance was awarded second place. Nearly 1,000 people were attendance, he said. “All the ballrooms were filled, and some people were standing,� Uppalaunchi said. “Tremendous support from the university and the community is what makes a show such as this successful.�
Chess bored: Student dominates competition
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his is a bigger deal than the weekend for me now. I really have fun, but I’m still looking for someone that can give me a run for my money.
GEORGE LAMBOLEY Daily Egyptian Joel Barr wants to be a loser. After fulfilling the daily requirements of classes and work, Barr, a sophomore from Morris studying business management, can be found in his spacious apartment in the afternoon, staring blankly at a chess board prepared for battle and pulling lightly on a menthol cigarette. “I’ve always played, but I never thought of myself as any good un-
— Joel Barr chess player
til I came to school here and just started smacking people around,� Barr said. Barr has played chess since the age of 7, and learned the game from his father, who would elaborate on various styles and strategies while handing out swift discipline in the form of taken pawns and conquered boards. Barr has played countless opponents in the past two years and has yet to lose a single match. Nathan Green, a former SIUC student, has played Barr weekly
since November and realized the possibility for demand of the game. After only a month of consistent play, the friends decided to meet weekly for best-of-three matches. “We started playing pretty much as often as possible and now I kind of have a standing appointment every Wednesday with Joel,� Green said. “He always wins, but I definitely make him think a little bit." The games are generally paired with a steady stream of trash-talking directed at almost everyone within earshot, often robbing players of what little dignity is left after a brutal loss or one-sided match. “You’re easily the worst person I’ve played all week,� Barr said after only a few moves made by his roommate, Andrew Fisher, during another match. Within only a few short moments,
Barr shifted the momentum of the match in his favor, pausing only briefly to make selections from his record collection and order Chinese food. Soon the mood in the room became increasingly tense as the number of pieces on the board grew smaller. “Now I’m really coming for you,� Barr said, snatching a pawn from Fisher's side of the board. Fisher took the defeat in stride as if the outcome was decided long before the game began. “Sometimes it’s almost like he knows exactly where I’m planning on moving my pieces. It gets really frustrating when you lose every single time to the same person,� Fisher said. Please see CHESS | 4